Ambassador Thomas F. Daughton

Deputy Commandant and International Affairs Advisor

Ambassador Thomas F. Daughton assumed his duties as Deputy Commandant and International Affairs Advisor at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy in January 2018. He most recently served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Namibia from October 2014 to December 2017. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister Counselor, Ambassador Daughton served at the Department of State as the Senior Advisor for Security Negotiations and Agreements from August 2011 to September 2013, and again from May to September 2014. In that position, he was the United States’ principal negotiator of a variety of international security agreements with partner nations around the world.

In 29 years in the Foreign Service, Ambassador Daughton has also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the American embassies in Gabon, Algeria and Lebanon. Those postings, as well as his assignment in Namibia, provided him broad leadership experience in bilateral diplomatic relations, including in the areas of health and development assistance, counter terrorism, political reform, energy development and policy, human rights and peacekeeping.

Ambassador Daughton’s other overseas assignments include Malaysia, Greece, Morocco and Jamaica. In Washington earlier in his career, he served as a staff assistant in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and as the country desk officer responsible for the Philippines. His foreign languages include French and Greek.

Ambassador Daughton is the recipient of the Secretary’s Award for Excellence in International Security Affairs and of numerous Superior Honor, Meritorious Honor and Senior Performance awards, as well as of the American Foreign Service Association’s Averell Harriman and Matilda Sinclair awards.

Ambassador Daughton is a native of Phoenix, Arizona. He is married to Melinda Burrell, a democracy and peace building specialist. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he worked in New York as an associate in the leveraged capital division of the law firm Sidley & Austin.